Thinker wrote:Is this recovery? All data will be lost. This is of no use for a common user. "Safe way to restart" is better name for this article.

Tend to agree here.

Thinker wrote:Pressing Alt+Print Scr + K will cause logout by Killing X-server. Although this will not save any data but it is much better and time saving than REISUB

Also note that CTRL-ALT+BKSP will also do that. Have had both fail, though, forcing use of REISUB anyway. (BTW: REISUO will (IIRC) shut the machine off, not restart. Sometimes, if you're just this side of throwing the machine out the window, that might be the wiser choice.)

Used this handy trick to restart my computer when Banshee froze my whole computer upon me unmounting a USB disk (I haven't recreated it yet, so I'll not create a post for this issue). I probably could have gotten away with killing X server, but I had Ctrl-Alt-Bksp disabled (as is default), so along came this shutdown method. Worked like a charm, I must say.

They say that a three-year old can use Windows 8. I say that's a bit of a regression. When I was three, I could use DOS.

A while back, some joker decided to disable the 'magic keys' by default, preventing orderly recovery in a stuck emergency.I have no idea what the logic of this was, if any. What would I know? Probably a very wise person. I expect there's a discussion somewhere saying how uttrerly pointless it would be to disable these key features by default if someone is going to have access to the main keyboard anyway, but no doubt there are other wiser views prevailing.

One doesn't really notice until one gets into problems, and finds sysrq-ralt isn't available, then starts muttering curses.

When I start a new system I use the following steps to inject some common sense. (Just after going to System Settings > Regional settings > options > set 'sequence to kill X-server' , presumably disbabled by default by the same wiseperson)

(Remember to close the priviledged panels before something silly happens.)

If you use magic commands from a terminal screen ( ctl+alt+F2, say), you will see them respond. Some give interesting if not useful info.Some are pretty weird and seem to take for ever, or flood the console (not useful!), but SysRq+Alt(rt)+ r e i s u b (typed in slowly with circumspection) often allows an orderly stop & reboot.It will not work if there is kernel panic.In a 'live' system, it will ensure that most files are 'sync'd to disc before stopping (if one waits or that to complete), but it will not restart one's live system as tinkered-with; instead it will take you back to a new live install base menu so you can start all over again. Oh, joy.

to quote WikiPedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key...unraw (take control of keyboard back from X),.... terminate (send SIGTERM to all processes, allowing them to terminate gracefully),.. ..kill (send SIGKILL to all processes, forcing them to terminate immediately),......sync (flush data to disk), _ _ _ _ _ wait!......unmount (remount all filesystems read-only),....reboot

I hope that's helpful.

If someone has a better way (especially with regard to a live system), I would be interested to hear it.